APRIL FOOLS!!!

March 27, 2006 12:29 PM

So April Fool's Day is this Saturday, so I'm wondering what is the best joke you've pulled, and more specifically...

what's a good joke that a somewhat quiet and reserved college freshman can do to "make a name for himself" in front of his friends? =)

(no suggestions involving mooning anyone or getting wasted...I want it to be a shocker for them, but that too much so...)

posted by beammeup4 to Grab Bag (29 answers total)

You could do something radical to your hair.. but I suppose that's just the "making a name" part, not the joke bit so much...
posted by Lotto at 12:37 PM on March 27, 2006

you could do what christopher walken did in SNL and prank someone with a tire iron.
posted by EvilKenji at 12:40 PM on March 27, 2006

No one knows who did it, but it was quite a day. At about 3-4am, someone went to the 'girls' floor and removed all the TP and shower curtains from every washroom -- it made the morning either funny or NOT FUNNY. That probably wouldn't go over so well with the ladies if one was trying to make a positive name for himself.
posted by maxpower at 12:43 PM on March 27, 2006

Do you care if you are thought of as a jerk? Because most pranks will get you that reputation with at least a few people.
posted by agregoli at 12:48 PM on March 27, 2006

You could pinwheel the lawn of...something.

(Buy a ton of the cheap plastic iridescent pinwheels. Stick them in the lawn to spell something out or make a funny shape or something.)

Harmless, fun/funny, and really quite beautiful when the sun is shining.

More obnoxious (and more expensive) are plastic flamingoes.
posted by fuzzbean at 12:54 PM on March 27, 2006

You could do something radical to your hair.. but I suppose that's just the "making a name" part, not the joke bit so much...

For that you would want to do something radical to someone else's hair...

There is the prank where they covered absolutely everyting in some guy's office with aluminum foil. That would probably translate well to a dorm room.


I just heard of this one and can't wait to try it on a kid: pour a bowl of cereal and milk the night before and toss it in the freezer. In the morning, add a bit more cereal/milk on top and serve.
posted by mikepop at 12:56 PM on March 27, 2006

A friend called his parents one April Fools Day and told them he got into a car accident and that he was in the hospital, paralyzed. They cried and his dad screamed at him. Then he told them he was kidding. Amazingly his parents still love him.

Try that one on your friends.
posted by zonkout at 12:59 PM on March 27, 2006

More here, and a lot more here. This question has been done.
posted by dead_ at 1:00 PM on March 27, 2006

I told my dad that mom died. But my mom had said to NOT do that so I freaked and was all "hidadmomsdeadaprilfools". Apparently it took him a second to parse that and so it had a bit of an effect anyway. Still. I don't recommend
posted by Brainy at 1:04 PM on March 27, 2006

Some kids on my hall my first year in college bought twenty or so live chickens from a local farmer, then left them (along with several 50-pound bags of feed) in one of the girls' bathrooms in the building.
posted by killdevil at 1:07 PM on March 27, 2006

Last year I heard of a kid who switched all of Roommate A and Roommate B's personal belongings (closets, dressers, desks, etc). They just left it that way.
posted by danb at 1:14 PM on March 27, 2006

-Fill a room with balloons. You need a bunch of people to blow up all the balloons, and access to the room.

-Cover elevator doors with aluminium foil. Post signs from the inside: "This floor moved to 13." "Floor no longer exists." and from outside: "You are fat, take the stairs."

-With inward opening doors, the old rope the door handle trick is always great.

-Release thousands of superballs in a hallway.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:15 PM on March 27, 2006

Put Kool-Aid in all of the showerheads. (They easily unscrew, just put a little bit in each. Hilarity should ensue.)

However, it'd probably be better if you went anonymous on that one; could get you in a little bit of trouble.
posted by itchie at 1:21 PM on March 27, 2006

In 2003 I swapped my Dave Matthews Band website with a faux John Mayer website.

Hilarity ensued.
posted by waldo at 1:33 PM on March 27, 2006

Last year, a friend and I gained access to another friend's dorm room while he was away, and proceeded to cover the place in newspaper. The walls, the floor, the furniture, everything. We even went so far as to wrap everything individually, and then replace it in its original location - stuff like individual candies he'd left behind his bed, that sort of thing.

It took a couple of fairly dedicated people, and a few occasional volunteers, about 5 hours to do. The hallway smelt of newspaper ink for a while, but the look on his face when he walked in was priceless.
posted by ZaphodB at 6:18 PM on March 27, 2006

From a logic book: the author's older brother told him he was going to trick him, at the end of the day the brother informed the author that the trick was that he didn't trick him at all.
Not so good for earning a reputation, but funny and potentially thought provoking.
On second thought, dumb.

glue something funny to something else.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 6:26 PM on March 27, 2006

I like to point to people's shoes and tell them their laces are undone. Screaming crying hilarity generally ensues.

(it's the way you tell 'em)
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 PM on March 27, 2006

I think the best pranks are personal.
posted by Laugh_track at 7:47 PM on March 27, 2006

waldo: I totally didn't realize you were that Waldo. That prank was fucking hilarious. ):
posted by danb at 7:49 PM on March 27, 2006

er. :), I mean. I thought it was funny, honest.
posted by danb at 7:49 PM on March 27, 2006

A small piece of scotch tape over the little telephone hang-up button keeps the office phone ringing when someone tries to answer it.

Comedy gold.
posted by baltimore at 7:53 PM on March 27, 2006

When I was in first year university, a few of us did the saran-wrap-over-the-toilet trip to all the bathrooms in the dorm. (Except the bathroom that we used, of course.) Even the people who had their pee spray all over them had to admit it was kinda funny. (And l lived in an all-girls residence, even!!)
posted by Kololo at 8:29 PM on March 27, 2006

My favorite prank that actually happened was actually a senior prank. True, though this story is secondhand.

Set loose three pigs (this was in a rural area) in school building. Label the backs of the pigs 1, 2, and 4.
posted by desuetude at 8:33 PM on March 27, 2006 [2 favorites]

The problem with the three animals prank is that everyone knows about it. My solution to this problem is as follows: get four animals. Number them one through four. Kill the third one and hide it, and then let the other three loose. They won't look for the fourth one until the smell invades wherever you placed it.
posted by invitapriore at 8:43 PM on March 27, 2006

Ah, but there are always those who are either a) gullible or b) paranoid in a "that's what you want me to think!" way. Sometimes the old jokes are the best.
posted by desuetude at 8:53 PM on March 27, 2006

From a neighboring dorm during college days, here's the Least Funny Prank:

Contract crabs. 'Fess up after someone else catches 'em from a toilet seat. Mass toilet paranoia ensues.

I swear this was not me.
posted by desuetude at 8:55 PM on March 27, 2006

Release the rounds!
posted by rob511 at 9:52 PM on March 27, 2006

martinX's bellbottoms writes "From a logic book"

And from an episode of M*A*S*H too!
posted by apple scruff at 10:52 PM on March 27, 2006

"...a somewhat quiet and reserved college freshman can do"

fandango matt's suggestion fits the bill perfectly!
posted by ceri richard at 6:55 AM on March 28, 2006